My Interpretation of the Video Game LIMBO
It's been a while since I've played the videogamatic experience that is LIMBO so I thought whilst replaying it I'd reassess my thoughts on what it's about and my interpretation. Some of these points will be my explicit interpretation, others just observation without any real thoughts on how it factors into my reading of LIMBO.
I'll start off with the sole facts as given by the XBLA description: Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO…
The first thing you see is the title screen, which depicts a broken treehouse and two indistinct shapes on the ground with flies buzzing round them. The game ends with the boy finding his sister at a treehouse much like it, only unbroken, leading me to believe that both the boy and the sister are dead, which I will tocuh upon further later.
So the game proper begins with the boy awakening in a forest (after his death) and journeying to find his sister. Having read Dante's Inferno recently, the similarity between the beginning of the poem and the game is unmistakable, with the dark forest imagery, thus I believe this section to be the edge of Limbo, between our world and the next. This further cemented in my mind with the fact there is a mine cart and thus a sign of civilisation on this side, which does not become present on the other til later on. By 'this side' I'm referring to 'this side' of the river, which the boy crosses in a boat moored by a cliff.
To anyone who's remotely familiar with greek mythology the notion of a river to the underworld should be very familiar and while it's clearly not the river Styx per se (lacking as it is the boatman) I definitely think it is only on the other side that we enter Limbo proper.
My personal spin on the world of Limbo itself is that it is representative of mankind or civilisation. It begins with untamed forest and rather rudimentary traps, but as you progress, there is sign of industry and technology. Beginning with a clearly deforested area with trees cut-down and progressing into a number of dams and mines before moving into proper industrial complexes and then even further to points where there are machines which can even alter gravity first of objects and then you yourself. It may even be a metaphor for man's conquest of nature in both her creatures, lands and laws.
The humans interestingly don't progress much themselves however and most you encounter are dead. Some have fashioned basic spears and blowdart guns but after them there are none to be found. Perhaps indicating that technology trumps even humanity? It's also worth noting that the humans at the start run from you, seemingly afraid of you and wanting to kill you out of fear, where as those with the blowdarts actively hunt you.
The spider is also a recurring foe, which represents to me a primeval fear. Arachnophobia, being one of the most common fears around along with heights and enclosed spaces, but it's much easier to personify fear as a spider than a bg drop (though there are plenty of those too). Another animal motif that appears in the game is butterflies which I believe to be the boy and girl's souls. You will often see a pair of butterflies flitting around each other and at a point where you catch a glimpse or vision of your sister, you are following the path of a single butterfly which is joined by a second upon reaching your sister.
Going back to Greek myth for a moment, though I'm a little rusty, I believe it was hope (from Pandora's Box) in the shape of butterfly that came to Prometheus to prevent him from falling to utter despair. Of course there are many interpretations of the Prometheus myth and this was from a children's book so hope may not have always been a butterfly, but I think they represent hope nonetheless, since they are beings of pure light. Another reason I mention this myth in particular is the Promethean nature of the game. The entire game (on first playthrough) REQUIRES trial and error gameplay, leading to your death and subsequent replaying of the sequence. This cyclical nature of things is reminiscent of the way Prometheus was unable to escape from his torturous fate, unable to even die, but constantly regenerating day after day. The end of the game also appears much like the beginning albeit one alteration we'll get to in a second.
The final part of the game involves the boy smashing through a giant pane of glass which some surmise as being representative of a car windshield (his manner of death perhaps) though I feel much more strongly that the treehouse was the boy's place of death and the pane is merely the barrier to the next world, be it heaven, hell or reality.
Once passing through it the boy lies on the ground before awakening much like the beginning but this time he reunites with his sister. He approaches her near the treehouse and her head jerks up, either startled or sensing a nearby presence. It is here the game ends.
I have two interpretations of this ending:
1. This is heaven and the boy has made his way to his sister after commiting suicide (which put him in LIMBO) and they are thus reunited at their favourite place.
2. It is reality and it was the boy who died not his sister and she is laying flowers on his grave at the tree house. Thus he has come to kill her so that they may be in the afterlife together, hence her startled reaction.
I must say being the morbid person I am, I rather like the second option but of course I don't really have a definitive idea on how the game ends, but I think in many ways it would be a shame if I did.
edit: Upon getting around to replaying the final segment I noticed that when the boy lands after crashing through the glass, there is a beam of light on him and a glow in the area all around him. he is also facing the opposite direction (left and face-down) compared to the start of the game. I'm taking the shaft of light to indicate a more positive ending than I previously suggested, though the light is not as strong as that pouring on his sister, it is notable in that I don't recall there being any such glow at the start.
I'll start off with the sole facts as given by the XBLA description: Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO…
The first thing you see is the title screen, which depicts a broken treehouse and two indistinct shapes on the ground with flies buzzing round them. The game ends with the boy finding his sister at a treehouse much like it, only unbroken, leading me to believe that both the boy and the sister are dead, which I will tocuh upon further later.
So the game proper begins with the boy awakening in a forest (after his death) and journeying to find his sister. Having read Dante's Inferno recently, the similarity between the beginning of the poem and the game is unmistakable, with the dark forest imagery, thus I believe this section to be the edge of Limbo, between our world and the next. This further cemented in my mind with the fact there is a mine cart and thus a sign of civilisation on this side, which does not become present on the other til later on. By 'this side' I'm referring to 'this side' of the river, which the boy crosses in a boat moored by a cliff.
To anyone who's remotely familiar with greek mythology the notion of a river to the underworld should be very familiar and while it's clearly not the river Styx per se (lacking as it is the boatman) I definitely think it is only on the other side that we enter Limbo proper.
My personal spin on the world of Limbo itself is that it is representative of mankind or civilisation. It begins with untamed forest and rather rudimentary traps, but as you progress, there is sign of industry and technology. Beginning with a clearly deforested area with trees cut-down and progressing into a number of dams and mines before moving into proper industrial complexes and then even further to points where there are machines which can even alter gravity first of objects and then you yourself. It may even be a metaphor for man's conquest of nature in both her creatures, lands and laws.
The humans interestingly don't progress much themselves however and most you encounter are dead. Some have fashioned basic spears and blowdart guns but after them there are none to be found. Perhaps indicating that technology trumps even humanity? It's also worth noting that the humans at the start run from you, seemingly afraid of you and wanting to kill you out of fear, where as those with the blowdarts actively hunt you.
The spider is also a recurring foe, which represents to me a primeval fear. Arachnophobia, being one of the most common fears around along with heights and enclosed spaces, but it's much easier to personify fear as a spider than a bg drop (though there are plenty of those too). Another animal motif that appears in the game is butterflies which I believe to be the boy and girl's souls. You will often see a pair of butterflies flitting around each other and at a point where you catch a glimpse or vision of your sister, you are following the path of a single butterfly which is joined by a second upon reaching your sister.
Going back to Greek myth for a moment, though I'm a little rusty, I believe it was hope (from Pandora's Box) in the shape of butterfly that came to Prometheus to prevent him from falling to utter despair. Of course there are many interpretations of the Prometheus myth and this was from a children's book so hope may not have always been a butterfly, but I think they represent hope nonetheless, since they are beings of pure light. Another reason I mention this myth in particular is the Promethean nature of the game. The entire game (on first playthrough) REQUIRES trial and error gameplay, leading to your death and subsequent replaying of the sequence. This cyclical nature of things is reminiscent of the way Prometheus was unable to escape from his torturous fate, unable to even die, but constantly regenerating day after day. The end of the game also appears much like the beginning albeit one alteration we'll get to in a second.
The final part of the game involves the boy smashing through a giant pane of glass which some surmise as being representative of a car windshield (his manner of death perhaps) though I feel much more strongly that the treehouse was the boy's place of death and the pane is merely the barrier to the next world, be it heaven, hell or reality.
Once passing through it the boy lies on the ground before awakening much like the beginning but this time he reunites with his sister. He approaches her near the treehouse and her head jerks up, either startled or sensing a nearby presence. It is here the game ends.
I have two interpretations of this ending:
1. This is heaven and the boy has made his way to his sister after commiting suicide (which put him in LIMBO) and they are thus reunited at their favourite place.
2. It is reality and it was the boy who died not his sister and she is laying flowers on his grave at the tree house. Thus he has come to kill her so that they may be in the afterlife together, hence her startled reaction.
I must say being the morbid person I am, I rather like the second option but of course I don't really have a definitive idea on how the game ends, but I think in many ways it would be a shame if I did.
edit: Upon getting around to replaying the final segment I noticed that when the boy lands after crashing through the glass, there is a beam of light on him and a glow in the area all around him. he is also facing the opposite direction (left and face-down) compared to the start of the game. I'm taking the shaft of light to indicate a more positive ending than I previously suggested, though the light is not as strong as that pouring on his sister, it is notable in that I don't recall there being any such glow at the start.